Over the last ten years, the Austin metropolitan area population has grown by 500,000 people. Over the last three years, 100,000 more people have moved to Austin than have left the city. In 2008 alone, the Austin population increased by more than 60,000 people. In addition to explaining why it took 50 minutes for me to…
Exclusive: Strong October & September Downtown Condo Sales
In the year between the summer of 2008 and the summer of 2009, a typical month saw 8 downtown condo sales captured in the Austin MLS. In four of those months, only 4 units sold. In the best month, 13 units sold. All of this has changed in the last two months. Between September 1…
New Home Buyer Tax Credits in Works
The U.S. Senate is working on a bill that would extend the first-time buyer home credit of $8,000 and add a new credit of $6,500 for homeowners who have lived in their current home for 5 years or more. The new provision, if enacted, would go into effect on December 1, 2009. The new bill…
AustinTowers: No More Site Security Problems
This was a rough week — Due to problems with our hosting provider, Google listed AustinTowers as a “reported attack site” which generates warnings in most of the major browsers. We cleaned the site, replaced all files, and switched hosting providers and now we are clear. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks to the readers…
W Receives Financing: Averts Crisis
The W Austin Hotel and Residences is an important project for downtown Austin. It’s located at the heart of the emerging Second Street District. It’s a $300 million multi-use project including a much-needed hotel, a prominent condo project, retail, and entertainment. It’s the home of the new Austin City Limits studio. Until this week, the…
Secret Congress Avenue Town Home on Market
Although not widely known, there are a small number of private town homes on Congress Avenue between 8th street and the Capital. They are well hidden — when you walk by you would never know that these buildings are private residences. If you have $6 million, if you want to live downtown but need more…